Arrow Season 6: Anatoly Knyazev Says the Words Green Arrow Fans Have Been Waiting For

This seems to be the Arrow news day with the season finale queuing up for tomorrow night. DC All-Access shared a clip from the episode called ‘Life Sentence’, and we’ll finally see the showdown between Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). The clip name drops an very important group in Green Arrow’s history and does it in the most casual way. Longtime fans of the character will be excited. The clip has spoilers, so be warned.

It’s a rather long scene for a sneak peek, but well worth watching. It starts with Oliver trying to make amends with John Diggle (David Ramsey) by having a second Green Arrow costume made so they both can wear it. That leaves two questions: are we supposed to believe that Digg wore the one Oliver wears? ‘Cause they are very different sizes. And two, who makes these costumes? Is it Cisco (Carlos Valdes)? If so, when does he have the time? Digg declines the costume, saying he wanted the mantel, but it’s special because Oliver made it so and that it would diminish it if there were two of them. They shake hands and seem to be past the animosity… thankfully.

The scene switches as Anatoly Knyazev (David Nykl) walks into the police station — which I guess we can assume the FBI helped take back — and turns himself in, bringing Oliver an address where Diaz wants to meet in an hour. Anatoly also tells Oliver that Diaz won’t be alone; he’s bringing the Longbow Hunters. Oliver explains that they’re a group of three assassins that even the League is afraid of, but they haven’t been seen in over 50 years.

The Longbow Hunters have a long history in the Green Arrow comics from all the way back to Mike Grell‘s seminal work on the character in the three-part The Longbow Hunters series that introduced the character of Shado, to a return a few years back led by Richard Dragon aka Ricardo Diaz Jr. When it was announced that Diaz would be part of the season, the question of the Longbow Hunters came up — but this is the first they’re even being mentioned this season.

Has quietly been working at Bleeding Cool for over three years. He has written comics for Image, Top Cow, Shadowline, Avatar, IDW, Dynamite, Moonstone, Humanoids and Zenescope. He is the author of the Lucius Fogg series of novels and a published photographer.